Mostly seen in the pair 尧舜, shorthand for an ideal, virtuous ruler. 尧 is famed for 禅让 — passing the throne to the worthy Shun instead of his own son.
Components
ideograph
尧yáo
legendary emperor Yao
The modern simplified shape does not break into clean parts. The traditional form 堯 stacked three 'earth' graphs over a person, suggesting great height; the 1956 reform replaced the top with a single stylized stroke-cluster. Indexed under Kangxi radical 兀 by tradition, though the radical is not transparent in this simplified form.
Filed under radical 儿 (ér) by convention. 儿 is not a separate component in 尧, so no strokes are highlighted.
In Pop Culture
尧舜Yáo-Shùn
Two of the legendary sage-emperors of remote antiquity. Their names together stand for ideal moral rulership and the 禅让 ideal of merit-based succession.
